It’s my favorite time of year in New York: the moment between summer-weekends away and the Holiday season.

If you blink, you might miss it.

Here are my 14 top things to do and places to go, eat, and drink for Autumn 2014 in NYC. (A broad @ home)

Am I missing anything? let me know in the comments

Do

1. New Yorker festival (October 10-12) In its 15th year, covering a range of topics, with some of the most notable people. I’m thinking Lena Dunham or Mindy Kaling — any takers?

2. DONE! Barry’s Bootcamp – I’d always been too intimidated to try this workout, but thanks to a few fit friends (ahem, AD), I now worship at the altar of the Barry’s Bootcamps. Layla Luciano’s 12:45 pm Saturday workout is, hands down, the best workout I’ve ever had.

3. DONE! Jeff Koons Retrospective at the Whitney (until October 19th) “Jeff Koons is widely regarded as one of the most important, influential, popular, and controversial artists of the postwar era…This exhibition will be the artist’s first major museum presentation in New York” How I didn’t make it this summer is beyond me

One of the best-curated exhibits I’ve been to in a long time. Do not forget to use the free “ipod-touch”-esque guide given out in the Lobby to hear Koons’ own thoughts on the different exhibits and pieces. Do not miss!

4. DONE! The Moth – This open-mic-put-your-name-in-a-hat-and-get-called-up-to-tell-a-story-in-front-of-hundreds-of-strangers-event was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. Cannot wait to go back.- True Stories. Told Live. H/t to CK for the suggestion. (October 6 StorySlam, Theme: Hunger)

5. Celebrate Oktoberfest Ok, so it’s not quite the same as going to Germany, but in the spirit of A broad at Home, I want to check out some of the newer beer gardens that will be celebrating Bavarian brews & pretzels. Particularly this one at Zum Schneider (October 3-12).

6. DONE! Jay Z @ Global Citizen Festival, (September 27 ): If you want some snark, ask me what I thought of this event. Luckily, it was a beautiful day spent in Central Park w one of my favorite people.

8. Greenwood Cemetery. I’m having a total Baader Meinhof moment with the Greenwood Cemetery. I’d never heard of it and now it seems to be everywhere. 478 acres of p ublic green space from a time before New York had public parks. Apparently, it is filled with famous residents and has a ton of wild parrots that live over one of the gates. Seems like a good adventure around Halloween while the weather is still nice.

Eat & Drink

10. DONE! Ivan Ramen My obsession with ramen only increased after my 2013 trip to Japan and this sraight-from Tokyo LES notable newcomer has a vegetarian-broth base on the menu that will make it one of my first stops this fall

11. Barcade $0.25 arcade games (Ninja Turtles!) + tator tots + 20+ microbrews… in my neighborhood? Sign me up. The Williamsburg bar just opened up an outpost in Chelsea. As long as my brothers aren’t hogging the NES console, pretty much sounds like my happy place.

12. DONE! Dear Irving this cocktail parlor on Irving Place is the newest creation from the team behind Raines Law Room. Rumored to be inspired by Midnight in Paris, I’m just having trouble deciding whether to start with The Godfather Part 2 or the Whiskey Business —

Possibly the best new date spot in the city — reservations are highly recommended. Oh, and all of the whiskey-based drinks are awesome. A particular favorite is their pear-infused take on the Gold Rush.

13. Attaboy The crisp air makes it easy to trade in rooftop summer nights for cozying up in one of NYC’s many, many speakeasies. Nope, that’s right, we here in Manhattan are still not over the cocktail + speakeasy craze. Attaboy is in the original Milk & Honey LES space (brought to us by that very same team!), with the same knock-and-buzz entrance and mixologists-extraoirdinaire.

14. Miss Favela - now that I live downtown & venturing to brooklyn is no longer such a schlep, it’s time to visit Miss Favela, the Brazilian comfort food spot in Williamsburg, known for its caipirinhas as much as live Samba music on Saturdays

It’s hard not to be enchanted by the coastline of Montenegro. It is what I imagine Croatia was 15 years ago, on the cusp of becoming a highly touristed destination, but still a hidden gem. Montenegro is the only country we visited that is on the Euro, making it pricier than Serbia and Bosnia, but still quite inexpensive as compared to its neighbors Croatia and Italy. The food is the best of all worlds: excellent Mediterranean fish, pizzas, pastas, and, of course, bureks.

Bay of Kotor (town of Perast)

Bay of Kotor (town of Perast)

Bay of Kotor (town of Perast)

Highlights:

The only ‘fjord’ in the Mediterranean, the Bay of Kotor, and all of the little towns along the Bay.

Don’t miss: make a dinner reservation at Galion Restaurant in Kotor and sit out on the water for the sunset.

The walled old city of Budva (which is like a mini Dubrovnik) and 3 miles down the Coast, the (now) private island resort of Sveti Stefan, famous as the vacation destination of Elizabeth Taylor and Sofia Loren

Sveti Stefan, private island resort

View of the bay of Kotor from Galion restaurant (town of Kotor)

Word of warning: Montenegro’s “undiscovered” nature lends it to be a tough place to drive/navigate. The roads are unmarked, unnamed, sometimes unpaved, un-railguarded on the sides of cliffs, and one lane for two ways of traffic (particularly in Lovcen National Park).

Just a few hours south of Sarajevo, Mostar feels like a different world. It is closest destination in Bosnia to Dubrovnik, Croatia and as we entered this mixed Croat/Bosniak city in Herzegovina, we fell back in love with the Adriatic landscape that enticed us to return to the Balkans to begin with – particularly the drama of the mountains plunging into bright blue-green waters.
Mostar is one of the Balkan’s most well-known gems and it is a-bustle with tourists who stop by for an hour or two during the day; it’s even the cover of the current Lonely Planet Southeastern Europe guide book. There isn’t much to do in the town itself aside from take pictures on and of the eponymous bridge and, for the those who dare, jump off the bridge. That said, it’s well-worth the stop, especially as a point to relax and break up the drive to Montenegro or Croatia, and a great base from which to go out on day trips and excursion in and around the area.

The famous Mostar Bridge

Where to Eat, Drink, & StayAdmittedly somewhat touristy, we enjoyed great food at Sadravan and Konoba Taurus, and drinks at the fun Black Dog Pub overlooking the water, included the locally brewed OldBridz brown ale. We stayed right in town at Villa Fortuna, which has the most charming inn keeper, if not the most reliable internet.

Sarajevo is a tale of two cities: the city before 1992 and the city after.

Pre-1992 Sarajevo is that which is first apparent to visitors; it is the city of east-meets-west, where, from the center of town, the eastern side of the city is a mini Istanbul, reflecting its establishment and first 400 years as an Ottoman Turkish city. From the west of the center, the city is a mini-Vienna, reflecting its 40 (highly productive) years of Austro-Hungarian rule, which brought Europe’s first electric-tram system. It is the city where Gavrilo Princip, trained by the Black Hand in Serbia, assassinated the future Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Ferdinand – the excuse for the start of World War I. It is the city that was known as little Jerusalem, where from a main square, one was never more than a few hundred feet of an Eastern Orthodox church, a Catholic Church, a mosque, and a synagogue. It was the gem of the former united Yugoslavia, when it hosted the 1984 XIV Winter Olympic Games.

Sarajevo was under siege from 1992-1995, surrounded by the Serb army, the scars of the war are visible on the facades of buildings, on the Sarajevo Roses around town (red resin filling in mortar scars indicating where people were killed during the war), from the tour guides who are no older than I am who talk about growing up in a city under siege, and by the abandoned Olympic venues – which are now surrounded by land mines and are a haunting reminder of just how transient the coming together of nations can be.

Bosnia & Herzegovina today is complicated beyond my understanding. It is mandated as two territories post-war – the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the Republika Srpska (RS). It has 3 postal systems, 2 tax systems, and 3 governments with 3 presidents (one Bosniak, one Serb, one Croat), which has lead to the 45% official unemployment rate.

Sarajevo, as the New York Times wrote last year, has a charisma that “is intoxicating, but the hustle and bustle belies a tragic past.”

It is hard not to fall in love with Sarajevo, but it is a city that will break your heart.

The eastern side of Sarajevo is a mini Istanbul

The western side of the city is a mini Vienna

mini Vienna

What to do

Don’t miss a walking tour of the city, we loved the Free Walking Tour with Neno, a Sarajevo-born guide just a few years younger than I am, who presents his personal history alongside that of the city

The underground tunnels (near the airport) from the siege time – which has an interesting 12 minute documentary and 25 meters of tunnel still open

the abandoned Olympic venues- impossible to get to by public transportation, but well worth renting a car or going with a tour (most of the hostels and a few of the tour companies will run them) (thanks to T.Cain for this rec!)

Gallerija 11-7-95, which I wrote about here

The food!! Recommendations below.

The siege tunnels from 1992-1995

The Latin Bridge where Archbishop Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, aka the beginning of WWI

The red resin “Sarajevo rose” over the mortar shell scar

The abandoned bobsled track from the 1984 Olympic Winter Games

The abandoned bobsled track from the 1984 Olympic Winter Games

Where to eat

Bakeries selling Bureks, the phyllo pastries filled with cheese, spinach, potato, or meat, are on every corner, but we highly recommend Buregdzinica Bosna, which is in the old town, and came touted as the best in the city (we won’t argue with that!)

Bosnian coffee at Divan - also in the city, and a great place for people-watching

Cevapici, the mini-sausage version of Turkish Kebabs, served with pita and onions. The city is divided on its favorite Cevapdzinica along sports team allegiance, but Zeljo and Ferhatovic are a toss up for #1.

Where to stay

Once again, we opted for AirBNB. The $35/night apartment (6 minutes from old-town )was only bested by the adorable host parents who adopted us for our time there (the apartment is owned and rented by their daughter and attached to their home)

After a few great days in Belgrade, Serbia, it was time to get on the road and begin the actual road trip. When I originally decided that now was the right time to do my long-awaited Balkans trip, there were a few modes of transportation that I’d looked into. Trains were out of the question, as many of the lines were never restored post-war and those that were, are outdated and take twice as long as any other mode of transit. Our options were buses or driving – we opted for the latter for the flexibility in travel itinerary and timing – and despite what transpired, it was one of the best travel adventures I’ve ever had.

There were some obstacles we were made aware of from reading blogs before the trip, namely:

a manual-transmission car

the lack of highways

reckless drivers

one-lane roads that cling to the sides of the mountainous topography

land mines that remain on the side of the roads once you enter into Bosnia – wartime remnants from the Serb army

There were some obstacles that were a surprise:

a total lack of roads entirely for some stretches

roads in total disrepair that were barely drivable (7 mph, max)

our cell phones not working at all in the Balkans (thank you, Verizon)

flooding caused by the torrential rains during parts of our drive

We took a detour to stop in Srebrenica – my thoughts are below – and so, in its entirety, the journey took us 8+ hours from Belgrade to Sarajevo, which is 120 miles as the crow flies. Stocked with a great Spotify music playlist, a bagful of pastries from Belgrade, and the best co-pilot/company a girl could ask for, we ended up having an incredible adventure – and one I won’t forget anytime soon.

Sometimes there were roads…

Sometimes there were not…

Beautiful Bosnian countryside, though we dared not step off the road to take pictures, for fear of land mines.

Part B: Stopping in Srebrenica on Yom Hashoah

I was 11 years old when the genocide in Srebrenica took place in July 1995. I had just finished 5th grade. I remember hearing the news coverage of the systematic massacre of 8300 Bosniak (ethnically Muslim) boys and men age 12-77 by the Serb army as the Dutch UN peacekeepers stood by and watched. Here’s a link for a brief recap of the history.

The moment we decided to make this a road trip, I decided I needed to stop in Srebrenica along the way. It’s not “my” history per se, but perhaps as a Jew (and as a former camp counselor who brought students to bear witness at the concentration camps in Poland), I felt compelled to acknowledge the history of the other 20th century European Genocide. What I didn’t realize until the night before, is that the day of our trip was Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day.

I don’t want to add much commentary for fear that anything I might possibly be able to write risks making the experience seem trite. My only note is how particularly difficult it was to read the echoes of the Holocaust’s “never again” in the memorial prayer in the cemetery “…May mothers’ tears become prayers that Srebrenica Never happens again to no one and nowhere,” because it did happen, again – and in our lifetime – as the world watched, again.

For visitors to Sarajevo, Gallerija 11/7/05 is a moving 2 room gallery with a photo exhibit and a 27 minute documentary that is not to be missed, despite the heavy topic. (Because it was the 1990s, the Serbs were broadcasting much on their news coverage – which is now part of the documentary.)

It’s a city not known for it’s beauty. In fact, it’s often referred to as one of Europe’s ugliest capitals. But what Belgrade, Serbia, lacks in aesthetic , it makes up for in personality. A city whose most recent history includes its dark role as the capital of former Yugoslavia, Belgrade is one of Europe’s oldest – and most conquered – cities (having been settled by Celts and conquered 38 times – by the Romans, Slavs, Byzantines, Frankish Empire, Bulgarian Empire, Ottomans for 500 years, and Hapsburgs).

With a few delightful pedestrian boulevards (Knez Mihajlova and the Bohemian Skadarlija in particular) scattered amongst the rest of the city’s crumbling Soviet-era cement blocks, Belgrade’s true charm lies in its under-developed tourism (and prices!) and perfectly developed, thriving nightlife.

With Ari’s Serbian friend Tamara in front of St. Sava church, which has been under construction for 80 years

Remnants from the 1999 NATO Bombing

The iconic Hotel Moskva

The main pedestrian area Knelz Mihailova

Sunset from the public park at the Fortress looking over the Sava and Danube rivers

The famous Victor monument

Knelz Milhailova at night

me & the bro walking around the bohemian Skadarlija street

We arrived for both the largest football match in the city (with riot police lining every street) and the Belgrade marathon (which was drastically different from my favorite day in New York).

What to do:

“Walking tour” There are free walking tours that run daily, or you can do what we did and create your own (click for our map), check out the itinerary below – you can see almost everything in <2 hours. Best of all, nearly all of Belgrade’s attractions are free (and are local, not tourist, spots)

Belgrade Underground – our one paid tourist activity, and glad we did it. A great (and passive) way to discover the hidden underground places from Belgrade’s 38 times being conquered, including Yugoslavian bunkers, ancient Roman ruins, and Ottoman buried wells. 12 Euro.

Nightlife! See below – don’t miss it!

Walking through the underground bunkers

Entrance to the Yugoslavian secret bunkers

Looking out from the fortress onto the Danube

Ari in front of the ancient Roman ruins…in what once operated as a club

Military remnants & the military museum

Gov’t buildings at night

Eating, Drinking, and Nightlife:

A mix of Eastern European with some Turkish influence, Serbian food is, on the whole, not particularly inspiring. The highlight was the cheese-filled phyllo dough burek pastries, which we lived on the entire weekend. Note: Almost all bakeries (pekaras) are closed on Sunday, which we learned the hard way

Nightlife starts late. Begin with dinner/snacks at 10pm at a kafana, which is a traditional tavern. The best have live bohemians bands that play Serbian traditional music, from whom increasingly-rowdy tables of guests “order” their favorite sing-alongs. Make sure to order some rakija, the traditional Serbian brandy shots made from various fruit. We had apple, pear, plum, and peach, each less palatable than the one before, but all part of the experience. Reservations for kafanas are required, even if they look empty.

Conclude the night with one (or many) of Belgrade’s clubs. We went to Plastic, which is the most well known in Serbian nightlife. People don’t start arriving until about midnight – the party closes at 4 and moves next door to Mint, the after party club with shared owners. As the weather warms, people walk from one to the next of the floating clubs along the river, which boast international DJs and impressive parties. There are no cover fees to enter the clubs, but reservations are required. Drinks are extremely inexpensive – with Rakija/whiskey costing $2-$4 per drink. No wonder the nightlife is so impressive!

Lastly, I have to mention the homemade wine. It’s terribly sour…but apparently it’s Serbian custom to mix it with Coca Cola, which forms a saccharine drink they call “bamboo.” Don’t ask.

The band serenading patrons in the smoke filled kafana

#untzuntz at Plastic

#letustakeaselfie at the club

Sour homemade wine + Coca Cola = bamboo?

Where to stay

At $54/night, our AirBNB rental a few minutes walk from the city center could not be beat.